New in the Northwest: 'Erased'

"Something big has come up. I need to see you, Theodore," the postcard reads. "And soon." Theodore Bellefontaine is stunned. The card is from his mother, which is extraordinary since she's dead. He manages to ignore it, but not for long. "Theodore," a second card scolds. "I'm not kidding." That's when he puts his life on hold and heads to Cleveland to search for her.

"Erased" is a novel of abandonment, life and death by Los Angeles writer Jim Krusoe. Aimee Bender called Krusoe's work "eerie, and vivid, and strangely sad, too. ... I know whatever I find will hover in my peripheral vision for a while after I'm done." "Escape" is published by Portland's Tin House Books, as was Krusoe's highly praised second novel, "Girl Factory."